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The DiCecco Daily: Three Eagles On Defense Who Are Squarely Under The Microscope · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Hey, what's happened to everybody? Welcome into this edition of
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  the Checko Daily. I, of course I'm your host Andrew Diiceco,
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  and today we are going to talk about three Eagles
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  defenders who I believe that are most under the microscope.
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  Yesterday we took a look on the offensive side of
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  the ball. We got into you know, aj Dillon, Kenyon Green,
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  and Johnny Wilson. Today we're gonna start things off on
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  the defensive line and that player is second, I'm sorry,
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  third year defensive tackle Morojomo. Morojomo is going to have
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  to step into an elevated role this year, There's no
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  way around it. But this is also a player who
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  played thirty seven percent of the snaps last season, which
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  comes out the three eighty eight. That's the same amount
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  of snaps that Jordan Davis played. But for a Jomo,
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  he's going to have to really wear the brunt of
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  a toning for the loss of Milton Williams and being
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  that sort of pass rushing disrupted presence. To compliment Jalen Carter,
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  what I like about a Jomo is that he has power.
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  Despite being an undersized tackle, very violent hands, his motor
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  never stops running and when you couple all of those
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  things together, I mean, I think you're going to get
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  a player that should be able to help the Eagles
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  immediately in a more expanded role. But he's under the
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  microscope because he hasn't yet done it. But the signs
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  are all there for a player who's immediately ready to
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  turn that corner with a larger role. But it's an
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  important role, and until we see it manifest on the field,
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  he's going to be under the microscope. But Moro is
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  one of my breakout candidates. He's not necessarily flying under
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  the radar. That's not what this exercise is about. But
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  he's also shown up on other folks' breakout lists, and
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  I really do think that you look at the opportunity
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  versus the skill set and that marriage and I think
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  that you're going to see a player who's going to
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  have a profound effect on the complexion of this defense
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  and how it ultimately functions. Vic Vangiel has been effusive
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  in his praise for Moro in the past, and I
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  would imagine and that's going to continue this year as
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  long as continues to go on his path of development,
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  which I think that we've seen that that jump from
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  year one to year two and now the big one
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  from year two to year three. On the other the
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  other level of the defense, which is the edge rusher group,
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  I'm looking at josh Usha who the Eagles signed as
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  a free agent. He's squarely under the microscope for me
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  because he's someone who obviously in the past he has
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  been someone who's racked up double digit sacks. We saw
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  eleven and a half with the Patriots, you know, back
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  in twenty twenty two. That also happened to coincide with
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  the most snaps he played in a season. He played
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  thirty eight percent of the Patriots snaps that year. But
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  the past two seasons he's combined for five sacks in
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  his time with the Patriots and the Chiefs. So I
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  guess the question there is was it simply he wasn't
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  a scheme fit or was he maybe exploited a little
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  bit and did he showcase some of his deficiencies. What
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  we've learned from Vic Vangio, we're gonna find out pretty
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  quickly whether or not ushe actually fits into this Eagles defense.
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  We learned that with Bryce Huff that the marriage wasn't
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  exact going to be smooth. It was really turbulent early on,
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  and it really wasn't until Bryce Huff got to the
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  open practice with the Patriots that he flashed at all
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  that summer. He picked up a couple of quote unquote sacks.
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  But aside from that, it was evident that it wasn't
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  necessarily a good pairing with Fangio and Huff based on
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  scheme we're gonna find out about ushe because for me,
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  I think that if he is your fourth edge rusher,
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  that's solid value and he's proven it before. He is
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  a one dimensional player. He's really only a pass rusher,
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  doesn't give you much in terms of special teams. But
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  I want to see what he can do while being
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  able to have no pressure and thrive in that role.
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  Can you be consistent? Can you stack consistently good days
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  in practice and go out there and earn your place
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  and utilize this opportunity as a revival for your career.
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  Because when Zach Bond talked about Spring practices and the
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  meeting that they had, his one year prove it deal
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  signing that ended up sort of parlaying into a three year,
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  fifty one million dollar contract. He made good on it,
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  and he became one of the best linebackers in the league. Well,
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  that was something that most resonated with ushe who also
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  signed a one year prove it deal. That's all good
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  and want to be motivated by Bond's story, But now
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  it's up to him to go out there and prove it.
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  There's no excuses. The Eagles have a tremendous coaching staff
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  to work with, and they have a defense that knows
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  exactly what it's looking for. So because we don't necessarily
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  know what we're getting in Usha, that's why he's squarely
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  under the radar and finally rounding things out on the
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  back end at safety, it's got to be Sidney Brown. Look,
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  Sidney Brown's entering his third season with the Eagles. No
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  one would doubt his energy, his intensity, and the ferocity
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  in which he flies around on the football field. But
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  in order to really thrive or find your footing in
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  a Vic Fangio defense, Sidney Brown's gonna have to prove
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  to be a little bit more restrained play within the
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  structure of Fangio's defense. It's also important to reiterate that
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  Sidney Brown wasn't here when he was drafted under a
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  different defensive staff. So Fangio is gonna get a long
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  look at Sidney Brown, of course, but he's going to
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  have to alter his game a little bit to really
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  match what Fangio looks for in a safety, which obviously
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  I've mentioned this before, but safeties and linebackers carry considerable
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  responsibilities in the Fangio defense, and so Sidney Brown's gonna
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  have to be more detailed and tight in the way
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  that he approaches things. I'll also say this because I've
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  gotten a lot of this. Well, Sidney Brown wasn't playing
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  over Tristan McCollum and everything else. Sidney Brown was deprived
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  of his second offseason. He was recovering from a knee injury.
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  He got a ton of mental reps. He was fully
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  engaged during the summer, but that always takes you so far.
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  By the time October rolled around that he was activated
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  and played in the game, he was relegated to special
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  teams because guess what. As I alluded to, this is
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  a tough defense to master on the fly, especially playing
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  the position that he plays. So it's understandable that he
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  was behind the eight ball and he's sort of finding
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  his way. But now I talked about Ousche. There's no
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  excuses here because he knows exactly what Fanjo's looking for.
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  He knows the defense. Now, he's been afforded the full offseason,
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  and he also has another year of working with safety's
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  coach Joe Casper, who undoubtedly is refining some areas of
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  Sydney's game. Look the Sidney Brown offered the same big
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  playability as a Drew mccooba. No, he is a hone
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  setting player that is probably best suit to be a
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  box safety. But you can't write him off in this
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  safety competition because it's too early. I think that he's
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  someone that is probably going to make some splash plays
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  in camp, but consistency is going to be key and
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  he's going to have to give everything. He's got to
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  be able to kind of hold off rookie safety Drew Macouba.
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  So there you have it. That's three players on the
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  defensive side that I think you can all make serious
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  cases for that they're under the microscope, and there's countless
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  more I could have named. Jordan Davis is another player,
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  but I highlighted a player at different levels of the
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  defense because there's going to be a spotlight on them.
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  They are under the microscope for various reasons. They're all
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  expected to undertake significant roles on this football team, and
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  they're gonna have a lot of eyes on him this
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  summer because they have a golden opportunity to go out
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  there and seize it. Well, that's going to do it
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  for this edition of the Checko Daily. I am Andrew
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  to check Oh and I will talk to everybody tomorrow.
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  Have a great one.